free a little bit in the '70s, and for me it means you can be yourself as a unique individual. what could be more important than that? ♪ laying the blame on vladimir putin. barack obama points to the highest levels of the russian government for interfering with the u.s. election campaign. new hope for people in east aleppo. rebels say they've reached another evacuation agreement. this after the previous one fell apart. plus, venezuela's economic woes grow deeper as people run low on usable cash. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, welcome. to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm george howell. >> i'm natalie allen. "cnn newsroom" starts right now. it is 4:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast.

the u.s. president barack obama says that russian cyberattacks stopped during the u.s. presidential campaign. this only after he saw the russian leader at the g-20 summit and told him to "cut it out. ." >> that's a quote. at the final news conference of the year, president obama said there's no doubt the kremlin was behind the breach of the dnc's e-mail server. he said he warned of serious consequences if the hacking continued. >> based on uniform intelligence assessments, the russians were responsible for hacking the dnc, and that as a consequence it is important for us to review all elements of that and make sure that we are preventing that kind of interference through cyberattacks in the future. >> so with these russian hacking attacks, it raises two questions

really. >> a lot of questions. the first is what was moscow trying to gain. the second, what can washington do about it. here's cnn's jim sciutto with a closer look at both. i told russia to stop it. >> reporter: president obama for the first time publicly blaming russian president vladimir putin for hacking the 2016 u.s. election. >> the intelligence that i've seen gives me great confidence in their assessment that the russians carried out this hack. the hack of the dnc and the hack of john podesta. not much happens in russia without vladimir putin. >> reporter: and the cia and fbi agree as to why. director john brennan telling the cia work force in an internal message that, "there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature perks and intent of russian interference in our presidential election." u.s. intelligence and law enforcement assess that moscow had multiple possible motives. undermine confidence in the

vote, weaken hillary clinton, and help donald trump. the president said he delivered a stern warning to putin at the g-20 summit in china in september. >> when i saw president putin in china, i felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn't happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out, and there were going to be serious consequences if he didn't. >> reporter: still, u.s. officials say russia's hacking of u.s. political organizations continues unabated. since the election, one attempted breach targeted the clinton campaign, though unsuccessfully. president-elect trump, however, continues to dismiss the u.s. assessment that russia is responsible. >> we had a meeting. >> reporter: despite the fact that he is being provided the intelligence behind that assessment in his classified briefings. and he sought to divert attention back to one of the revelations gleaned from the emails stolen by russia,

tweeting, "are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that the head of the dnc illegally gave hillary the questions to the debate?" i'm told that the cia director's message comes as many cia staffers are frustrated, even angry to be accused of partisanship in their response to the russian hacking. the gop chairman of the senate intelligence committee also coming to the defense of intelligence staff saying that they leave their politics at the door. jim sciutto, cnn, washington. >> thank you. these accusations of russian hacking are new headlines here in the united states. but in other parts of the world, this is old news. >> officials in former soviet republics allege they've been targeted by russian hackers for years. cnn's ivan watson says they even tried to warn the west but were ignored. >> reporter: the kremlin is vigorously denying accusations that russia hacked and targeted the u.s. presidential election of november. but a number of former soviet

republics, leaders, and former leaders from those countries are adding their own criticism and accusations saying that they've been warning the u.s. government for years about similar tactics coming from russia targeting their own democracies. take a listen. >> i almost was like vindicated when the same administration in washington suddenly started to speak about russian involvement in elections. they were the same people telling us, no, it cannot possibly be true. and now it came to their doorsteps. and so -- of course he does all those things. of course he's massive, he controls the greatest amount of black cash anybody controlled in history. >> when it comes to information for at least for i think ten years. probably some things that you discovered as new in your

pre-election, and we've been seeing it already for years. >> reporter: in kiev, the ukrainian government says it's recently come under at least ten major cyberattacks targeting government agencies like the ministry of finance, the state treasury, the state railway company, and on friday, the ministry of infrastructure said that its website was taken down by a cyberattack. the ukrainian government has not yet pointed fingers. it's difficult to try to figure out who is behind some of these cyberattacks. last december, a serious cyberattack targeted computers from an electricity company here causing blackouts in more than 100 ukrainian cities and partial blackouts in more than 150 other ukrainian cities. in that case, ukrainian and u.s. government investigators came to the conclusion that this did have russian fingerprints on it, that there was a virus introduced by a corrupted microsoft word file that

targeted those computers. of course, ukraine for more than two years has been fighting against separatists that have been strongly supported by ukraine's neighbor to the east, that is russia. ivan watson, cnn, kiev. it looks like donald trump is getting clotser to making another -- closer to making another announcement. kellyanne conway says that trump is set to nominate south carolina congressman nick mulvany to head the office of management and budget. >> he would manage the white house's budget programs and policies and oversee purchase by the federal government. the republican lawmaker met with trump last week. he co-founded the conservative house freedom caucus which has clashed with republican party leaders. >> trump's nominee for u.s. ambassador to israel is drawing criticism and praise. the president-elect has tapped campaign adviser david friedman for the job. friedman is in favor of moving

the u.s. embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. >> that would offend decades of u.s. policy. friedman has balked at the two-state solution for israel and palestinians. more from global affairs correspondent elise lab on the. >> reporter: in tapping his longtime friend and bankruptcy lawyer david friedman as ambassador to israel, donald trump moved to make good on a campaign promise. >> we will send a clear signal that there is no daylight between america and our most reliable ally, the state of israel. >> reporter: israel's right wing education minister bennett praised friedman calling him, "a great friend of israel." by appointing the hard-line friedman as ambassador, trump could be signaling plans to reverse decades of u.s. policy toward israel. friedman, an orthodox jew, has no experience in diplomacy. he strongly supports legalizing settlements and israel annexing

the west bank and has questioned the need for a palestinian state, writing that a two-state solution appears "impossible" as long as the palestinians are unwilling to renounce violence against israel or recognize israel's right to exist as a jewish state. >> i'm reminded of a line from "wizard of oz" when dorothy lands and says to her little dog toto "i don't think we're in kansas anymore." >> the positions attributed to him on issues like two-state solution, settlement activity, that clearly contradict decades of u.s. foreign policy. >> we will move the american embassy to the eternal capital of the jewish people in jerusalem. >> reporter: in a statement, friedman said he looked forward to doing his job from "the u.s. jeb in saddam's eternal cap -- in israeli's eternal capital, jerusalem." >> the law provides that the obligation to move the embassy to jerusalem can be waived at

the desire of the state department. the reaction from donald trump is going to be, you know, you're all fired. >> reporter: for decades, u.s. presidents have argued the status of jerusalem which both israelis and palestinians see as their rightful capital can only be settled as part of a peace deal. friedman has criticized the left-leaning jewish lobby j street which has criticized some israeli policies calling them "far worse than cappos, jews who turned in fellow jews in the nazi death camps." as to respond, freed man said, "they're not jewish, and they're not pro-israel." in statement, the group that supports a two-state solution for israelis and palestinians said it was "vehemently opposed to friedman's nomination," calling it "reckless, and putting america's reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk." current and former diplomats say that by picking friedman as ambassador and promising to move the u.s. embassy to jerusalem, donald trump is running counter

to his professed desire which is making what he called the ultimate deal between israelis and palestinians because it raises serious doubt about when the u.s. can continue to be an honest broker in future mideast peace talks. cnn, washington. >> thank you. we will talk about that and much more with cnn politics reporter eugene scott live this hour from washington via skype. eugene, good to have you. at the beginning of the show we talked about, this the president taking a firm stance on who is to blame for the hacking, the russian president he believes. making sure to downplay any rift between his administration and the trump transition team. let's listen to what the president of the united states had to say. we can talk about it in a moment. >> with respect to the transition, i think they would be the first to acknowledge that we have done everything we can to ensure that they are successful, as i promised, and that will continue. my hope is that the

president-elect is going to similarly be concerned with making sure that we don't have potential foreign influence in our election process. >> the president let it downplaying a rift ueugene, but using the word hope, hoping they will be on the same page as donald trump takes over, takes the oath of office. >> reporter: there's some concern that they will not be. we saw earlier white house press secretary josh earnest suggest that donald trump is more aware of russian involvement into hacking than these has let on. earnest was expressing his frustration that trump does not seem to be as proactive as he would like in working with the obama administration and finding a solution to this problem that the obama administration has been calling out for some months now. >> want to talk about the president-elect, donald trump, in orlando on the thank you tour on. stage, this is his natural element in front of the crowd, people who adore him. many who vote for him.

i want to play a soundbite from that gathering without commentary here. donald trump describing his own crowd. let's listen. >> you people were vicious, violent, screaming, "where's the wall? we want the wall." screaming, "prison, prison, lock her up." you are going crazy. i mean, you were nasty and mean and vicious, and you wanted to win, right? but now you're mellow, and you're cool. you're not nearly as vicious or violent, right? [ cheers ] because we won. >> the words "vicious, violent, screaming, nasty, mean, vicious," but now "mellow," eugene? >> reporter: it was a surprising characterization from the president-elect considering his

surrogates spent months denying those characterizations from people on the left and even people on the right. we have seen firsthand activists and journalists be physically and verbally assaulted at these rallies and out on the trail from supporters of donald trump. he says that they changed, and it will be interesting to see how things move going forward from that their poin-- from thi. >> one reporter had an empty water bottle thrown. you know, obviously we'll have to continue to monitor how these events come together especially when it comes to the press. many times young men and women getting out of college, getting first jobs, covering the president of the united states and finding themselves in very dangerous, dangerous situations. also want to talk about david friedman, trump's pick for ambassador to russia. and i want to also show if we could just many people who have come together in this cabinet so far. we are starting to get a sense of the trump cabinet.

uneern eugene, as you look at the list, david friedman included, what do you take from the statement that donald trump's making by the picks that he's choosing? >> reporter: it certainly seems like in many situations he values loyalty, as has been reported before. friedman does not have much domestic policy or foreign policy experience. but we do know that he was an attorney for donald trump during a very difficult time in his career when his casinos were facing bankruptcy. i think we will be surprised to see what happens from this community of future leaders given that they've done in the past. we really don't have much of an idea of where they will go in the future. >> let's talk specific about david friedman. this would be a major shift from what we've seen in past administrations with relations with israel, specifically with how the united states views jerusalem. >> reporter: very much so. friedman strongly believes that jerusalem should be the undivided capital of israel,

something that u.s. domestic policy has not argued or supported in decades. frankly, this is not that big of a shock considering how trump has campaigned. he has been very vocal about the fact that he would take israel policy or the u.s. policy on israel further to the right than we have stood in past years. >> donald trump come january 20th will take the oath of office and become president of the united states. there are some, though, many democrats i believe, who are looking at electors now, they're looking at electors coming together, hoping that that would make a difference to possibly stop donald trump. eugene, tell us, you know, what is the feeling about electors? will this just be a rubber stamp? >> reporter: yeah. the chances that electors will not elect donald trump this monday when they're expected to vote is pretty much close to zero. donald trump as of now, everyone should expect him to become the next president of the united

states. i think what was interesting is quite a few democrats were hoping to get an intelligence briefing before they were able to vote this monday regarding russia's involvement in the election. that is not going to happen. >> and eugene, to give our viewers background on that, so the united states, we have the popular vote. voters choose a slate of electors to come together. and those electors, they cast the final vote to decide the president of the united states. there are some faithless electors, people who can change their minds, can go a different direction. again, as it has been seen and, you know, presidential elections before, this does tend to be a rubber stamp. so we will obviously monitor that and follow that news. eugene scott, live in washington. thanks for your time. >> reporter: thank you. ahead here, another deadly explosion hits turkey. this time targeting off-duty soldiers. we'll have that coming up. plus, evacuations are halted in aleppo, syria. but there's word that there may be a new agreement on getting more civilians out. we'll have that story next.

a story we're following in turkey. turkish armed forces say 13 of its soldiers are dead after an explosion. reports say a car bomb detonated near a public bus that was

transporting off-duty soldiers and civilians. >> 48 more soldiers are wounded, but we haven't heard any details about civilians. it was just a week ago there were two blasts in istanbul that left dozens of people dead. a splinter group of the pkk claimed those attacks. we turn to syria now and east aleppo. a rebel group says they've reached a new agreement to resume evacuations from the city. convoys carrying people to safety came to a stop on friday because of a breach in the cease-fire. >> it's still not clear who broke that cease-fire. innocent people are paying the price for it. cnn's fred pleitgen has this report. >> reporter: they were supposed to be brought to safety. instead, they're running for their lives once again. a convoy meant to take these east aleppo residents out of the besieged areas under fire. [ gunfire ] this eyewitness says he was part of the convoy stopped he claims

by an iranian militia fighting on the side of syrian president bashar al assad. the syrian government has a very different account. it says rebel fighters in the convoy were carrying concealed weapons and that they are the blame for the violence that reportedly left a number of people dead. evacuations that had already succeeded in getting thousands out of eastern aleppo ground to an immediate halt as the blame game began. russia making a puzzling announcement saying it believed the evacuation of east aleppo was complete and that only hard-line rebel fighters remained in the enclave. turkey, which help negotiate the agreement, shooting down those claims. the red cross and unicef for their part say tens of thousands of people including more than 1,000 children are still trapped inside the war-torn city. for those that made it out, the anguish was almost too much to

bear. >> reporter: for those trapped inside the tiny rebel enclave in eastern aleppo health care reform the situation's even worse. stuck in the bitter cold with no food and no medical supplies, left to pray that the violence won't begin again. fred pleitgen, cnn, beirut. president obama spoke about the worsening situation in aleppo in fizz final news conference -- his final news conference on friday. >> he defended his administration's policy there and criticized the syrian government and its allies. >> responsibility for this brutality lies with the bashar al assad regime and its allies, russia and iran. and this blood and these atrocities are on their hands.

i understand the impulse to want to do something, but ultimately what i've had to do is to think about what can we sustain, what is realistic. but i continue to believe that it was the right approach given what realistically we could get done. >> slighting russia was a central threw line in his remarks. he said that he's blocked the united states from taking more action. the u.s. is accusing china of unlawfully seizing one of its underwater drones. the u.s. military says the incident took place in the contested south china sea, about 160 kilometers from the philippine port of subic bay. >> a research was in the vessel thursday to retrieve the drone similar to the one that you see here. that's when the pentagon says that a chinese warship swooped in and snatched it with a small boat. the u.s. says the drone was

measuring ocean conditions and was not there spying. >> interesting story. >> yeah. >> snatched the drone right out from under us. coming up, the two men who should be on the same page when it comes to russian interference in the u.s. political process. instead, they seem to be getting farther apart. plus, venezuelans caught up in yet another economic crisis. they're stuck with bank notes that are now worthless. live from atlanta, broadcasting across the u.s. and around the world this hour. you're watching "cnn newsroom." take one.

directv now. stream all your entertainment! anywhere! anytime! can we lose the 'all'. there's no cbs and we don't have a ton of sports. anywhere, any... let's lose the 'anywhere, anytime' too. you can't download on-the-go, there's no dvr, yada yada yada. stream some stuff! somewhere! sometimes! you totally nailed that buddy. simple. don't let directv now limit your entertainment. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. welcome back. to our viewers here in the united states and around the world, you're watching "cnn

newsroom." good to have you with us. i'm george howell. >> i'm natalie allen. here's a check of top stories this hour. turkish armed forces say 13 soldiers were killed in an explosion in -- how do you say it? >> kaziri. >> thank you. a bus carrying off-duty soldiers was hit by a car bomb near a university campus. 48 more well wou-- are wounded,t it doesn't include civilian casualties. >> we'll continue to follow the story. rebel groups in aleppo say it's reached a new evacuation agreement with forces. the evacuation process stopped in the city on friday. rights groups say that militant rebels broke a cease-fire. the u.s. military is demanding china return an underwater drone seized by one of its warships. the pentagon says its unmanned underwater vehicle, is similar to this the one here, was snatched in the south china sea near the philippines. it claims the drone wasn't spying, just measuring ocean

conditions, when china swooped in and took it. and the u.s. president is leaving little doubt on who he holds responsible for cyberhackingings during the u.s. election. the man you see here, the president of russia, vladimir putin putin. barack obama told putin to "cut it out" when the two were at the g-20 summit in china. mr. obama says the hacking stopped, but the damage had already been done with hacked emails posted on wikileaks. the fact that president-elect trump is openly skeptical about the hacking has put him at serious odds with the obama administration. >> trump and president obama have been outwardly civil to each other since the election. but as cnn's jim acosta explains, the hacking controversy is putting a strain on their relations. >> reporter: after a tense 48 hours of attacks and counterattacks, president obama tried to turn down the temperature, urging donald trump to get on board with a probe into russia's hacking into the american political system. >> that should be a bipartisan

issue. that shouldn't be a partisan issue. and my hope is that the president-elect is going to similarly be concerned with making sure that we don't have potential foreign influence in our election process. >> reporter: earlier in the day, the president-elect was stirring the pot, suggesting on twitter that moscow's cybertheft of democratic emails served a greater good, tweeting, "are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that the head of the dnc illegally gave hillary the questions to the debate?" trump is also punching back at white house press secretary josh earnest. >> although this foolish guy josh earnest, i don't know if he's talking to president obama. i mean, maybe he's getting his orders from somebody else. >> reporter: after earnest accused the president-elect of egging on a cyber operation. >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.

>> reporter: that intelligence officials have traced back to russian putresident putin. >> the republican candidate for president was encouraging russia to hack his opponent because he believed that would help his campaign. >> reporter: the war of words shattered a political cease-fire that began when trump visited the white house. >> i just had the opportunity to have an excellent conversation with president-elect trump. >> mr. president, it was a great honor being with you. >> reporter: and extended all the way to just last tuesday in wisconsin. >> president obama, who by the way has been very nice and his wife has been very, very nice -- [ boos ] >> reporter: top trump surrogates are demanding the president show the love of country. >> if you want to shut this down and love the country enough to have this peaceful transition in our great democracy between the obama administration and trump administration, there are a couple of people in prominent positions, one's named obama,

one's hillary clinton. >> reporter: democrats argue a grace menace is being swept under the rug. from hillary clinton who told donors that the cyberattack tipped the election to trump. >> vladimir putin himself directed the covert cyberattacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against me. >> reporter: to her former campaign chair, john podesta, who blasted the fbi for focusing more on clinton's emails than on the russian threat, writing in the "washington post," "what's broken in the fbi must be fixed and quickly." trump supporters insist it's time to move on. at worst, it was the truth that came out that had an impact on the election. and a political truce appears to be back in place between the trump transition team and the white house after president obama declined to attack trump at a news conference earlier in the day. the president-elect returned the favor at a rally here in orlando. jim acosta, cnn, orlando, florida. >> thank you. the government said that it was an attempt to stop

criminals, but it turned into chaos at a venezuelan bank, you see here, and many banks. more on the country's currency crisis ahead. plus, some of baseball's most coveted stars fall victim to smugglers. cnn freedom project looks at the plight of cuban baseball hopefuls. this holiday, the real gift isn't what's inside the box... it's what's inside the person who opens it. give your loved ones ancestrydna, the simple dna test that can tell them where they came from -by revealing their ethnic mix. it's a gift as original as they are. order now at ancestrydna.com. testinhuh?sting! is this thing on? come on! your turn!

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welcome back to "cnn newsroom." i'm george howell. in the nation of venezuela, their cash problems have gotten even worse. >> the country's government announced the 100 bolivar note would be discontinued. protests broke out after the currency set to replace it didn't arrive at many banks. imagine that. rafael romo with more on venezuela's latest economic crisis. >> reporter: it's an extraordinary sight -- long lines of desperate venezuelans

trying to get rid of their 100 bolivar bills. the bolivar is the venezuelan currency. some people carrying travel bags stuffed with bills. this is chaos, this man said, if you go to banks, you'll see people bringing in bills in cardboard boxes to exchange them because they're worthless. they're doing it because last sunday venezuelan president maduro ordered the bill to be replaced with coins of the same value. the government has yet to distribute them. now consumers are stuck. banks no longer accept the bills, but atms are still dispensing them because the replacements haven't arrived. this woman says, "many businesses also no longer accept the 100 bolivar bill, so consumers like her have to use their credit cards to make purchase." it's just one more blow to the venezuelan economy which has

been sputtering over the last few years. inflation is expected to rise an estimated 470% this year, according to the international monetary fund. next year the imf says it may rise to more than 1,600%. the currency lost 55% of its value just in november. venezuelan authorities had announced they would roll out 500 bolivar bills this week at the highest official ex-change rate, worth 75 u.s. cents. "all you can buy with a 500 bolivar bill," this man says, "is a piece of bread, and you will still be short by 50 bolivars." economists say the bottom line is that the venezuelan economy is in tatters, and the government has failed so far to find a solution. >> translator: this accumulated inflation is very, very aggressive. and it reflects the monetary policy failure and. steps taken to reduce inflation

by the chavez government and the current president maduro." >> reporter: the government says it will make available bills of much higher denominations, up to 20,000 bolivars soon. in the meantime, people are left without answers and wondering if their cash is now worthless. rafael romo, cnn. the philippine president is vowing to keep up his controversial war on drugs. >> in singapore friday, rodrigo duterte also insinceiated he would not -- insinuated he would not stop until every drug dealer is dead. >> my campaign against drugs will not stop -- [ cheers ] until the end of my term. until the last pusher and last drug lord are -- [ sound ]

>> the philippine national police say almost 6,000 people have died in the war on drugs since duterte took office in july. >> many people there, you know, say that they believe that it's brought peace, a more peaceful situation to many communities that have dealt with drug dealers, things of that nature. again, the president of the philippines admitting that he's killed people. he's admitted killing suspects when he was the mayor of davao city and admitted it to our own will ripley in a report that we'll have for you later. the lure of big money and fame drives many baseball players to the u.s. major leagues. when it comes to cuban athletes, that desire can come with a sinister twist. >> their entrance into the majors is sometimes facilitytated by criminals -- facilitated by criminals who want a part of their contract. more on smuggling cuban baseball players into the u.s. >> reporter: cuban players are some of the best players in

major league baseball. there's a dark side of the mlb that most people don't know about -- how these cuban players got here. over the past few years, federal investigators have uncovered a vast and vicious human trafficking network. one that supplies the mlb with its cuban talent. federal prosecutors say lots of these cuban players came in this way, include something big names like jose abreu. they're lucky to be alive. at least six smugglers have pleaded guilty or been convicted. this is how they describe it -- it starts in cuba where players sneak on to a smuggler's boat. the criminals could take them straight to the u.s. but then the players would be eligible for the baseball draft and land smaller contracts. instead, smugglers ferry players to cancun, mexico. there investigators say the smugglers hold players and their families against their will until they sign contracts with specific agents and promise a huge chunk of their future salaries. >> they were kidnap victims

essentially. i mean, they weren't thankfully beaten or maimed or tortured. they had no free will. they were told where to go, when to go. they were given minimal necessities and held until they could provide some financial benefit to the people who took them. >> reporter: when an outsider landed a $15.5 million contract with the rangers, here's what the public didn't see -- $5.5 million were supposed to go back to his smugglers. martine exposed that when he sued his smugglers in 2014. these cubans appear to be free agents. in a sense, that couldn't be further from the truth. this underworld involves so many smuggling rings that people are starting to ask how much the mlb knows about this. the mlb declined to comment. >> you add on the layers of the fraudulent application for passports, the fraudulent paperwork, everything now becomes a fraud. and if baseball is involved in seeing that paperwork, what --

what other conclusion can you draw that, wow, they certainly don't have 20/2 0 vision on thi. >> reporter: after all, convicted smugglers say professional american baseball scouts are actually visiting these cuban players when they're stuck in mexico and held against their will. >> that's an unreal story from our freedom project folks. if you want to see more, go to our website, cnn.com/freedomproject. all right. it is cold, cold, cold -- >> and getting colder. >> across much of the northern u.s. it may get more dangerous if ice accumulates. karen maginnis is here with us to tell us more. it's vicious. >> it is vicious because it encompasses such a wide swath of the united states. 38 states in the lower 48 states are seeing such bitterly cold temperature, windchill factors that are deadly. road conditions that are deadly.

and people are headed out trying to get someplace for this week that precedes christmas. where you see the pink shaded area through ohio, west virginia, pennsylvania, into virginia, as well as into the areas across coastal regions of new jersey, that's what we're seeing, that icy mix. not to be outdone, we've got whiteout conditions, icy roads, and bitterly cold windchill factors down to as low as 50 degrees below zero windchill. just to give you an idea, if nothing else, take away from this that the number that you see just to left, that indicates the windchill factor. for chicago, they're saying this could be the coldest start to the nfl game on sunday. that's nfl, okay. they'll suit up, warm up, they're going to play. this is beyond that. this is deadly, potentially deadly weather. when you look at windchill factors minus 27, minus 50, bismarck or duluth, minnesota,

possibly. and that dives all the way down toward areas into oklahoma. i took a look at the department of transportation cameras on the roadways in iowa. it is so treacherous. lots of people have just -- they're forgoing the idea of getting out on the highways because it is so icy and so miserable. you're not just going to see piles of snow but dangerous driving road conditions. the plunge in chicago, maybe above zero. and that kind of rebounds into the next few days preceding christmas. new york city, icy there, as well. coming up in the next hour, george and natalie, our own derek van dam got stuck in the snow in the rockies. and he's pretty hearty. we'll show you that. >> yes. you're here and thank you. so derek can go play. he ran into a little trouble. we'll will have that.

thanks. >> thank you. all right. shakespeare's 16th century birthplace is home to some 21st century theater manningic. >> the tempest meets technology. that's ahead.

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so if you are a fan of shakespeare, you'll recognize the line "we are such stuff as dreams are made on" from "the tempest." >> very good. now some 21st century theater magic is hoping drive that point home. here's nick glass for you. ♪ >> reporter: we've become accustomed to high production values at the royal shakespeare company. frankly, we expect it. >> many colors, do not disobey the -- >> reporter: this time the rsc seems to have surpassed itself almost psychedelically. >> refreshing -- >> reporter: in shakespeare's 400th anniversary, we wanted a celebration. this is the last authored play that requires extraordinary magical effects.

we wanted it special in this particular year. >> reporter: gregory doran was alerted to something on youtube, a presentation by the technology giant intel. >> this big whale swam to this huge screen behind the ceo's head, and then he said, "we know we can do this, but what if we could do this." and the whale swam through the screen and swam over the audience's heads. i said, that's what i want for "the tempest." >> reporter: so the rsc embraced digital magic, capturing an actor's movement with special cameras and computers, so-called motion capture. and they consulted an expert. >> sort of like a combination of theater, video game, and film making skills coming together really. and it's what we call at the imaginarium the birth of next-generation storytelling. >> reporter: many of the special effects were designed for one character -- the spirit aerial.

he gets a skintight bodysuit, the kind used by actors in films like "x-men" and is wired up with 17 sensors from head to toe. is it a different kind of acting? >> no, it's not. it's not. i suppose there's an awareness of the physical gestures, but you'd be doing that anyway if you were acting, i think. no, it's exciting. it gives him a bit more power, i think, aerial can create different versions of himself at will. >> reporter: so beyond the bank of computers, a ghostly avatar of aerial took shape. we were given rare access to the final few days of rehearsal to marvel a little, to eavesdrop. >> alas, i left in the -- >> reporter: first glimpse of the tempest visually re-imagined, aerial, his javata, and his master, the magician prosperer. >> theater's always been very

catholic in its taste, you know. i think it will nick anything, that sort of interest. there's another tool in the box and a very impressive one. yes, i'm sure it will be around. i'm sure it will develop. >> this has been a two-year collaboration between the rsc, intel, and imaginarium. aerial can shapeshift in realtime before our very eyes. and his avatar projected from the computer anywhere on stage. at one moment, a harpy, part bird, part woman. >> theater's always explored the new and innovative and the novel. we've always wanted top exploit whatever was -- whatever possibilities were out there. so this is just the extension of that. >> reporter: the human aerial is always there flighting in and out of the shadows and acting away. but it's his avatar who seemed

to tell the story of the shipwreck that brings prosperous enemies to him. these ethereal, almost vaporous. that said, the special effects remain in service of shakespeare's words, and the acting at key emotional moments is always between flesh and blood players and them alone. nick glass, cnn, with aerial and his avatar at stratford upon avon. >> seems cool. >> yeah, really cool for shakespeare. high times at stratford upon avon. and that wraps our hour of "cnn newsroom." i'm natalie allen. >> i'm george howell. stay with us. the second hour of "cnn newsroom" right after the break.

not much happens in russia without vladimir putin. >> the u.s. president pointing the finger at russian president for what happened during the elections. thousands of civilians still caught in the middle after evacuations from aleppo sop. we're learning agreements have been reached to allow evacuations. plus, the u.s. braces for more frigid temperatures over the week. we'll have the latest for you. >> welcome to our viewers here in the freezing united states and around the world. we're